272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



PorLulacacecE. 

 In this as in most other very natural orders, the genera are difficult 

 of limitation. But the forms appear not to run together in the way 

 they do in such an order as the Polemoniacece, perhaps because the 

 species are fewer, yet they give the systematist much trouble, I pro- 

 pose to arrange the North American genera as follows. 



Perigynous ; i. e. calyx partly connate with the ovary and capsule, both cir- 



cumscissile. !• Portulaca. 



Hypogynous : i. e. calyx, corolla, «&c. free. 



Shrubby : seeds and embryo merely uncinate-curved. 2. Talinopsis. 



Herbaceous : embryo coiled round central albumen. 



Calyx 2-sepalous, herbaceous, deciduous, sometimes tardily so. Stamens 



5 to .30. * 3. Talinum. 



Calyx 4-8-sepalous, herbaceous, persistent : petals 5 to IG: stamens 10 to 



40 : capsule circumscissile at very base. 4. Lewisia. 



tion of the calyx) commonly a little projecting: annuals, mostly either low or 

 slender. 



* Petals 4 to 8 or 12 lines long, broadly cuneiform, lasting more than one day. 

 •»- Seeds superficially reticulated or else smoothish. 



4^ Stems equably and very leafy to the top, branching above : leaves mostly 

 surpassing the peduncles, finely decomposed into very narrow linear divari- 

 cate divisions and lobes: petals seldom half-inch long: herbage wholly gla- 

 brous and glaucous. 

 E. RAMOSA, Greene, Bull. Torr. Club, 188G. E. elegans, Greene, Bull. Calif. 

 Acad. i. 182. E. Californica, var. hypecoides, Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 112, 

 the small-flowered plants. Islands off tlie coast of Lower California, Streets, 

 Palmer, Greene, and Santa Cruz Island off Santa Barbara, Greene. 



*->■ +- Stems scapiform or sparsely leafy : divisions of leaves fewer and less 



divergent. 



E. c^spiTOSA, Benth. Herbage often hispidulous when young, at least the 

 petioles, sometimes quite glabrous : leaves thinnisli ; the lobes and divisions from 

 filiform-linear to linear-cuneate : petals pure yellow, half-inch to inch long. 

 E. ccespitosa and E. tennifoUa, Benth. 1. c. ; both subscapose and slender-leaved. 

 E. Austina, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 09. A common species in California ; 

 passing doubtless into 



Var. HYPECOIDES, E. hijpecoides, Benth. 1. c, a form more leafy-stemmed, 

 with less finely dissected leaves, and smaller flowers. 



E. Mexicana, Greene, 1. c. Stouter and dwarf, wholly glabrous and glaucous, 

 with leaves of much thicker texture and coarser dissection, the lobes crowded : 

 peduncles 2 to 10 inches long, mostly scapiform : petals orange-yellow, broad, 

 half-inch to almost an inch long. E. DonglasH, var. parvula, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 

 10. The most eastern species, extending from tlie Rio Grande in New Mexico 

 to S. Utah and probably tlie borders of S. California. At Paso del Norte and 

 below, Wright collected it within the Mexican lines, thus barely justifying the 



